a widening scandal as the tampa socialite caught in the web is linked to another top-ranking commander. tonight her family defends her. >> she is very dedicated to her husband. >> we ask, who is the woman behind the investigation of two of the most powerful men in america. a murder in paradise, a search for titan john mccaffee, the man who invented anti-virus software protecting millions of computers. a strange tale of a millionaire on the run. and why were these american heroes sitting ducks in one of the deadliest attacks of the afghanistan war? we go behind the battle and unravel the mystery of the outpost. >> announcer: from the global resources of abc news with terry moran, cynthia mcfadden and bill weir in new york city. this is "nightline," november 13th, 2012.

good evening, i'm terry moran. well the twists just keep on coming in the scandal that led cia director david petraeus to step down. and today there was a stunning new turn that now the top general in afghanistan is feeling the unwelcome glare of the spotlight. at the center of it all, a tampa socialite named jill kelly. and abc's brian ross has set out to discover who this woman really is who's helped unravel the careers of one of the most powerful men in america. >> reporter: her detractors are harsh saying 37-year-old jill kelly of tampa is nothing more than a name-dropping, social-climbing, bored socialite. in the course of only a few days two of the most powerful men in america have been surrounded by scandal because of action she has taken. sending shock waves all the way to the white house. >> well, i certainly think wouldn't call it welcome. >> reporter: first it was cia director david petraeus.

and now it is general john allen, running the war in afghanistan. together, a devastating blow to a country at war. >> anything that takes your eye off the ball is a distraction. and it will have some effect. >> reporter: officials say it started early this summer when kelly received anonymous e-mails accusing her of flaunting a friendly relationship with military brass in tampa. she called the fbi, which traced those e-mails back to the computer of paula broadwell, where they discovered the evidence of broadwell's affair with petraeus. broadwell, seen tonight at her brother's home in washington, sipping wine and having dinner, admitted her affair with petraeus but has not commented on her e-mails she allegedly sent to the other woman, jill kelly. there is more, abc news learned that general allen received an anonymous e-mail traced to broadwell, claiming jill kelly was a seductress. a further look by the fbi into

kelly's e-mails revealed hundreds between kelly and allen. 20,000 to 30,000 pages of communication in all. secretary of defense leon panetta put general allen's promotion to nato supreme commander on hold and ordered a full investigation of the allen/kelly relationship. >> today, the secretary directed the matter be referred to the inspector general of the department of defense for investigation. >> reporter: jill kelly spent the day at her home in tampa not answering questions. in the background, a television could be seen with news coverage of the payton place like military sex scandal that focused attention on who she and is how she end up in the admit of it all. the license plate on kelly's mercedes-benz, shows she is honorary counsel for south korea. in 911 phone calls, kelly told the dispatcher she deserved protection from the media us because of that. >> i am an honorary consul

general, they should not be able to profit, i don't know if you want to get diplomatic protection involved as well. but that's against the law to cross my property since it's inviolable. >> kelly lives near the air force base, home of central command and special operations command, a place where access is closely guarded. yet she had easy access to the country's most powerful general stationed there. according to a friend, who is also editor of "the tampa bay magazine." >> jill is known a gracious hostess, a vivacious individual. >> reporter: this picture taken two years ago at a party at the kelly home, showing jill's twin sister, natalie, general petraeus, jill's husband scott, jill and the general's wife, holly. >> there is no question they were friends. and no reason why they wouldn't be friends. >> reporter: despite all her lavish entertaining, court documents reviewed by abc news

show that jill kelly and her husband have been sued at least nine times and face foreclosure on their home. the kelly home also served as the office for a charity she and her husband, a doctor, once set up for cancer victims, which spent tens of thousands of dollars on travel, meals and entertainment. kelly's twin sister natalie has her own legal and financial problems and lost custody of her son in a contentious divorce proceeding in which petraeus, as head of the cia, and general allen, running the war in afghanistan, wrote letters on her behalf. >> can you talk about this, please? >> reporter: all of this has raised lots of questions about the two generals and their decks to the tampa housewife. but at least in the case of general allen, he has strongly denied anything inappropriate, so far the white house and his fellow generals say they believe allen. >> i believe john allen until somebody proves otherwise. i believe that he did nothing inappropriate. >> reporter: as for jill kelly while she wasn't talking she

wasn't hiding from cameras outside her house. her brother told us she has nothing to hide. >> she's very dedicated to her husband and to her kids. for anybody to paint her other than that is completely wrong. >> even so, jill kelly has now hired one of washington's top criminal defense lawyers, abby lowell, who defended former senator john edwards, and she even has a publicist. the same one who handled the media for former white house intern monica lewinsky. terry? >> what a strange tale. thanks, brian. we'll keep on it. just ahead, we will turn to a murder in a tropical paradise. and the famous american software tycoon now on the run from the law. lincoln, in thelteaters everywh, november 16th.

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>> announcer: "nightline" continues from new york city with terry moran. so we turn now to the strange tale of an american tech mogul at the center of an international murder mystery. a man whose name is synonymous with security, john mcafee, he built a fortune creating anti-virus software that protects come puputers around t world. now he is being chased by police across a tiny country in central america. and matt guttman reports from belize. >> reporter: john mcafee, a software savant, synonymous with security is synonymous with drugs, paranoia, and the murder of, mcafee's murder here in belize. tonight, 48 hours after his neighbor was shot point-blank in the back of the head, mcafee is on the run, telling wired

magazine he drastically changed his appearance. police tell abc news the 67-year-old is a person of interest and is now being hunted by police even american officials still investigating the scene of the crime. >> when the police arrived at his property he saw them coming and he hid. he in fact says he dug himself into the sand and put a cardboard box over his head. he is convinced if the police catch him, the police will kill him. >> reporter: the island, in the emerald caribbean, accessible by tiny puddle jumpers, so intimate, everybody knows everybody. we traveled to mcafee's beach front compound. hello. any body home. where we found his guard. have you heard from mr. mcafee? >> no, nothing. >> reporter: do you think he is okay? >> guess so. >> reporter: as "nightline" learned, fall was an american also living down the beach from mcafee.

shane mccann was one of the first on the scene. >> he had a gunshot wound to the back of his head. he was laying face up. >> reporter: fall had lived here for years a place where americans come to find quiet and anonymity. according to the realtor, mcafee stood out. he said he is paranoid. i wonder if you have seen evidence of that? >> certainly. any of us who live here on the island know whnotice when heap moving about town, he is not alone. he has security person fell with him >> reporter: they were armed with shot guns. but it could be this photo, snapped for a feature about john mcafee in "wired" which tells the story of a genius whose paranoia may be eating away at his sanity. >> i hid for almost 18 hours. i have buried myself in sand. i have slept on roofs the i will do whatever it takes. >> reporter: during the

recession, mcafee lost nearly $100 million. but enough was left to buy this compound. mcafee,000 tells wired he believes the country of belize is out to get him. >> that they don't like him. that they either want him to leave the country or want him dead. >> reporter: mcafee told "wired" police poisoned his dog and they killed his neighbor insisting he had nothing to do with fall's death. >> he's dead, yeah, they killed him. so it, it spooked me out. i thought my god. they mistook him for me. >> reporter: police and fall's family tell abc news a different story. they say mcafee had become unhinged even violent. something his motor reporter, witnessed firsthand recently. he traveled to belize to in the view mcafee and filmed this footage while there. >> i started to realize the public persona of mcafee was different than private. appeared to be using a drug that was hallucinogenic and could

cause psychosis. >> reporter: the controversial, not illegal drug, called bath salts on a message board calling it super perv powder. abc news has not been able to verify the post. mcafee kept running afoul of police. >> i seriously entertained doubts if i would get out of his house alive. >> reporter: a bizarre downfall for one of high tech's early pioneers and a self-made millionaire. >> it's been report you'd were worth about $100 million. >> it may have been true. >> reporter: "nightline" profiled him as he auctioned off possessions in 2009 before moving to belize where he thought he sought the more simple life, free of material possessions. national security spokesman, rafael martinez says police now wonder about his sanity. >> i do not know the reason why he should be well, not, coming forward to speak with the police. i mean, not coming forward, mean that you are wanted for

questioning. i mean, it begs the question exactly the state of mind, of course. >> reporter: according to one in communication with mcafee, he is on the move and committed to staying in beloved belize. >> he things a wonderful place, most beautiful on the planet. why would he want to leave? >> he leaves behind a community, reeling and fearful with mcafee on the lam. >> are you scared? >> this is isle bonita. paradise. things like this don't happen down here. another weird story there, thanks to matt guttman for that. next up, a better story. tales of uncommon bravery from american soldiers stationed in a remote and dangerous outpost. and the government that failed them. we find the best, sweetest crab for red lobster that we can find. [ male announcer ] hurry in to red lobster's crabfest! the only time of year you can savor 5 succulent crab entrees,

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for all the talk of scandal at the highest levels of u.s. command these days let's remember there are 68,000 men and women serving in afghanistan tonight. and every day for 11 years they and thousand before them have done us proud, more than 2,000,02,000 laying down their lives for us. jake tapper remembers. on the day jake's son was born, our white house correspondent heard the story of other american sons at one far out post and a terrible battle. jake set out on a three-year quest to bring us their story from the northwest reaches of afghanistan. >> what's up, dude? >> not a thing. >> reporter: for years the troops at combat outpost keating feared they were sitting ducks. located at the bottom of three steep mountains 14 miles from the pakistan border. and when the taliban attack finally did happen in october

2009, seen here in this terrifying video posted months later, the 53 u.s. troops there were horribly outnumbered by 400 enemy fighters. >> well were alone, isolated. air support was too far away. that location was indefensible. >> reporter: why was the doomed outpost put there, why would the u.s. military leave them so open to attack? captain ross burkeoff was an intelligence officer and one of the first assigned to keating in 2006 >> we knew there were weapons, fighters, supplies moving across the border we knew we had to stem the flow. but who was there? were they al qaeda? were they taliban? we had mixed reports. >> reporter: the outpost was placed near the road to monitor insurgent activity to be accessible to resupply since most of the helicopters were in iraq, and to be close to local villages. captain matt gooding, first long term commander at keating said winning over locals was initially a near impossible

feat. did they want you there? >> 90% did not want us there. 10% did. >> reporter: do you think they knew who was trying to kill you? >> absolutely. >> reporter: in the early days the ter trrain would pose the challenge. in 1996 the road they were trying to improve claimed the life of ben keating, for whom the outpost was named, when his truck overturned. soon troops stopped using the road for resupply though that was one of the main reason the outpost had been put there. the u.s. in the valley had successes and failures, by may, 2009, security there had completely deteriorated. [ gunfire ] captain christopher cord? ova was the top medical man for the last unit deployed to the outpost that if came in in the dead of night. when the sun rose, what,000 did you think when you looked around at the top? >> hard to believe we were stationed in such an indefensible position. why are we at the bottom of this

terrain. >> reporter: october 3rd, at take everyone knew would some day come -- finally did. [ gunfire ] >> reporter: the specialist in a guard post returning fire for hours on end. it was clear that this battle was like nothing they had ever experienced. >> this was something i never heard before. >> they were brilliant. hate to say that. they were. >> reporter: kevin,0 thompson w immediately killed. first of eight that day. all killed in act of bravery. josh kirk firing at the hills when skilled. michael scuza running into deliver ammo. gallegos, vernon and mace were also killed trying to help their fellow troops. >> if i wasn't where i was, could i have done what the men did? and i don't think i could have. >> reporter: at one point insurgents infiltrated the camp

but with courage and air support the men of outpost keating beat the enemy back. within days the u.s. abandoned the base. and bombed it back to dust. the pentagon later did its own investigation and admitted at the time there was no tactical or strategic purpose for the outpost. >> at the end of the day was it worth it do you think, combat outpost keating being there? >> i don't want to say it wasn't worth it. i feel it takes away from what we did. >> it is a complicated area. hate to say we occupied the area for three years and didn't accomplish nothing. i hate to say that or think that. >> reporter: a question that gnaws at many survivors of the outpost and those who loved the ones who did not survive. for "nightline," jake tapper in washington. the heroes, thanks to jake. thank you for watching abc news. jimmy kimmel is up next. we will see you here tomorrow. up next on an all n j